Sea Tow Foundation Receives US Coast Guard Grants

The Sea Tow Foundation has announced it will receive a series of grants from the United States Coast Guard for the 2019-20 grant year and beyond.

The grants, administered through the Coast Guard’s Sport Fish Restoration & Boating Trust Fund, will be used to support the Foundation’s Life Jacket Loaner Program and Sober Skipper Program.

The Coast Guard has awarded the foundation’s seminal Life Jacket Loaner Program with $210,000 for the coming year, an increase of nearly 8 percent year-over-year. In addition, the Sea Tow Foundation has been awarded the same amount for the following two years to guarantee that the Life Jacket Loaner Program will continue well into the future.

The grant money will be used toward increasing the number of Life Jacket Loaner Stations of which there are more than 575 across the country. In addition, it will help fund replenishments and repairs of existing stations. Applications for next summer’s life jackets and loaner stations will begin on November 1 on the Sea Tow Foundation’s website.

The Life Jacket Loaner Program grant will also help in the development and maintenance of an online database of life jacket loaner station locations around the country, along with a map of those locations,

A second grant of $120,000 has been awarded for the Sober Skipper program, which celebrated its sixth year in 2019. These funds will help the Foundation continue its goals of building greater awareness of the importance of sober boating through grassroots efforts to spread the message in boating communities around the country.

In the past year, the Sea Tow Foundation has established an American Sober Skipper Advisory Council, which works to unite the corporate and non-profit sectors of the boating industry around a shared message of safe boating. Grant funding will continue to support the council, as well as fund a boating industry awards program to recognize and honor businesses who are promoting safe boating within their companies.